


New Earth

by Fericita



Series: All Is Found [5]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Frozen 2 - Fandom
Genre: F/M, NO BOATS!, There Was Only One Cave, everyone can grow up together in the forest, no closed doors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22585693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Roleswap AU where Agnarr is stuck in the Enchanted Forest at the age of 20 following Runeard’s failed attack. Agnarr and Iduna are forced to marry by Yelana, who is looking to create a bond between the two nations, and raise their family in the forest where Elsa can learn how to use her power without fear.This is the concluding story, but we plan to expand on this world more with some one-shots. Let us know in the comments if there is anything you want to see.Collaboration with The Spastic Fantastic, who is in fact fantastic and was a dream to write this with.  Nothing we write should have boats anymore! NO MORE BOATS!
Relationships: Agnarr & Iduna (Disney), Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Series: All Is Found [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624150
Comments: 12
Kudos: 61





	New Earth

Captain Mattias did not know why he’d been kicked in the stomach, punched in the face, and tied up. There was a blizzard raging outside; surely Lemek didn’t think he would be stupid enough to stage an uprising in this kind of weather. 

Mattias had tried to earn the trust of Yelana, devising new ways of bringing down the mist or attempting to create an opening in it. Once his leg had healed, he’d scaled trees to see how far it spread and walked the perimeter of the forest to plot the boundaries of their confinement, all under the watchful eyes of Northuldra. Other Arendellians were always in different groupings or scouting parties, none of them allowed to interact. 

Mattias had suggested and then supervised the building of a catapult to fling willing volunteers into the mist. He had led charging reindeer to the border in an attempt to break it open. He had even started controlled fires aimed at the edge of the boundary, hoping it would create an opening. Nothing had worked.

He supposed it was fair that they didn’t trust him yet despite all of this work. As soon as he found a way through the mist, his plan was to find Agnarr and bring the rightful king of Arendelle home to his kingdom. King Runeard had died committing a despicable act, but Mattias’ allegiance had always been to Agnarr and Arendelle, and he couldn’t give up on either easily. 

He had come to respect the Northuldra and their ability to live in the forest and use its resources without exhausting them, unlike the sugar plantations his father had told him about that clear cut trees and used up both men and land. Mattias had come to realize that the dam was not helping the Northuldra in the ways King Runeard had promised. Mattias admitted to himself it could have been another deception. He had not taken Runeard to be a murderer, but he had seen the king kill the Northuldra leader with his own eyes. What else might he have missed?

Despite the heartbreak of being separated from Halima, and not knowing where Agnarr was, he had days where the new skills he was learning were a delight. Catching his own dinner in the river, participating in the village-wide construction of new kotas...it gave him brief reprieves from the twist in his heart and gut at the thought that he had served an unworthy king, that the new king was missing, and that Halima knew nothing of where he was or how he longed to be home with her.

His reverie came to an end with the arrival of Lemek and Yelana, Lemek kicking him again. Mattias shot him a glare, letting him know what he thought of beating a man who was already tied up.

“Why is he back? What are you planning?” Lemek spit the words at him, and Yelana put a firm, restraining hand on his shoulder, not allowing him any further violence against Mattias. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Mattias ran his tongue over his teeth, turned his head and spit some blood onto the dirt floor. “Maybe fill me in a bit before you demand answers. And stop punching me in the face if you want to be able to understand what I say.” 

Yelana spoke. “Agnarr has returned with Iduna, who is giving birth. Did you communicate with him? Did you know he was returning?”

Mattias stared at them for a moment, taking in what he was hearing, and then shook his head slowly. “No, I didn’t know. But I’m sure he’s doing it to help his wife. The Arendelle royalty has a sad tradition of losing women in childbirth.” He was sure Agnarr was frantic with worry if he was risking his life to bring Iduna to safety. He wished he could comfort him like he used to when Agnarr was a boy and his father’s sharply worded rebukes had sent Agnarr to the barracks or the stables, looking for Mattias and a round of chess or a ride in the woods.

Lemek and Yelana looked at one another, then departed in silence, leaving him alone. As they opened and closed the flap to the shelter, he saw that the blizzard had stopped and everything looked bright and still outside. 

***

They came back in, perhaps twenty minutes later. Mattias’ arms were tingling in their position tied above his head. Yelana took out a knife and cut him down roughly, over Lemek’s protests. 

“What are you doing? Keep him tied up! Surely this is part of a plot to hurt us! To kill more of us!”

Yelana answered sharply. “I’ve had enough of your hysterics. Go elsewhere if you want to complain about the blessings of this day.”

Mattias ran his hands along his arms, trying to speed up the process of getting feeling back in them. “Blessings? Did everything go well with Iduna and the baby?”

Yelana looked at him and smiled. It startled him. He had never seen her smile before. “Yes. The baby is born, the blizzard is over, and the mist has lifted. I want you to take your soldiers and be sure.”

Lemek scowled. “You want him to go? He won’t tell us the truth! They’re liars, the lot of them!”

Yelana shot him a look that had Lemek bowing his head contritely. “They want to leave more than any of us want to get out of the mist. Let them look and see. Then we’ll know if it’s safe. This imprisonment might be over for all of us.”

***

Agnarr fell asleep next to Iduna, exhausted from the journey to the winter encampment, the beating, and presumably from the strenuous five minutes he had spent holding baby Elsa. Iduna sighed and kissed Elsa on the top of her head, nestled as she was between her two parents, swaddled in the shawl made by Iduna’s grandmother. 

Iduna was exhausted as well but too much emotion was flowing through her for her to calm herself and sleep. In the span of a day, she had been forcibly taken back to her people, given birth, thought her husband would be killed, and then told by Yelana that the spirits had lifted the curse and the mist was gone. And with it, the death sentence on her husband.

“The love you showed to your people’s enemy was seen as betrayal by myself and by your family. But the spirits saw it differently. They have rewarded you with a child whose birth broke the curse and healed our land.”

Lemek shuffled in, the anger on his face no longer in sharp angles and scowls. He seemed more like the brother she remembered from girlhood; the one who caught her when she threw herself out of trees, who carried her on his back as they laughed and raced among reindeer. 

He took off his hat and held it, worrying it in his hands. “I came to find you last winter, to be sure he was treating you well. And I saw how well he was treating you. How much you had given yourself to him.”

Iduna looked at him, incredulous. Was this an apology? “You're angry I married him? Do you forget that I was forced to marry him?” She whispered her answer, not wanting to wake Elsa. 

His answer was loud and Elsa began to stir. “You betrayed your people by helping a murderer!’

“His father was a murderer! Not him!” Iduna whisper-shouted, turning a bit towards Elsa so she could soothe her with the steady hum of a lullaby in her ear.

“His people are all the same. Greedy and clueless. And with all the power. You should have let us kill him that first day of the battle.” Lemek’s voice was pleading, but Iduna would not let herself be moved. She shook her head.

“Lemek, you're wrong. He is a good man who had a bad father. Leave him alone. You don’t get to impose more punishment than the spirits themselves.” Elsa was now crying, and Iduna felt a shiver of cold. Her desire to cover herself with warm blankets and sleep had the sudden intensity of a contraction. “Now hold this baby so I can sleep. I’m exhausted and you’ve beaten my husband too badly for him to be of much use.” 

She lifted Elsa up gently and handed him to Lemek, who took her as carefully as he had his own sons when they were this small. In spite of himself, he smiled. 

“The weight of her,” he said. “I remember when you were this small. It seems impossible a whole person can be this tiny. She’s no bigger than a salmon, though she’s a sight more beautiful.” Iduna smiled and thought of a retort about comparing her perfect baby to a fish, but she was too tired. She was so tired she thought she saw snow falling inside, covering Agnarr’s swollen face and Lemek’s surprised one, coating Elsa’s eyelashes and dusting her shawl. 

Lemek held Elsa with one hand, his other out catching the flurries surrounding him like a swarm of curious insects. “Iduna, do you see - “ but his words caught in his mouth, and he saw his sister was already asleep, curled into the man who he wanted to hate, but who seemed to love Iduna deeply and without regard for his own safety. 

***

“Born with the gift of magic.” Agnarr shook his head and then winced, his face still too bruised and swollen from the beating he received four days ago to be able to move without pain. “All of those fairy tales I’ve read and loved; I never thought I’d get to live in one. But here we are, a lifted curse, a magical snow princess, and me the happiest of men to have you both safe and healthy here with me.”

Iduna smiled and took Elsa from her spot in the blankets, unwrapping her a little to wake her up enough to feed her. She could feel the fullness of her breasts and knew Elsa’s need to eat was probably as great as her need to feed her. She guided Elsa to her, and then sighed in relief as her milk came out. Agnarr raised himself up and sat behind Iduna, pulling her into him and running his hands up and down her shoulders, giving her his warmth. 

Iduna relaxed into him, her sigh of content matched by Elsa’s contented suckle. “You were a prince! Surely you always felt like you lived in a fairy tale.”

He tilted his head down to kiss her cheek and cupped his hand over Elsa’s head. “Never, my love, not until I became your husband.” 

“And do you want to be king now? We could go to Arendelle. I’m sure they eagerly await your return. “ Iduna kept her words light, trying to make it seem as if staying here among her people or going to live among his was of no consequence to her. As if after coming home to her people after a year of banishment, she wouldn’t be heart-sore to leave them so soon.

Agnarr moved his hand to Elsa’s, splayed on Iduna’s breast. Icicles were forming on the tips of her tiny fingers. He gently pulled the ice from where it touched Iduna’s skin and left his hand between Elsa’s small one and Iduna’s breast, protecting her from the formation of new ice and snow.

“My father killed your uncle because he thought magic was evil. I don’t think it will be safe for a magical child in Arendelle. There is much my father kept from me, and I don’t want to bet our daughter’s life - or your life - on my ability to change a long-held fear.”

Iduna sighed again, relieved. “I’d like to stay here in the forest. The spirits are awake again and I’m sure Elsa’s magic is connected to them.” She nestled her head under his chin and closed her eyes. “My scarf shows the four spirits connected by a fifth. Yelana thinks it could be Elsa, that her birth is more than the lifting of a curse. She thinks her birth is the beginning of something new. A fifth element that binds them all together and to our world.”

Agnarr ran his fingers on Elsa’s cheek, her nose, her closed eyelids, tracing the shape of her and marveling at her features; Iduna in miniature and rendered in white. It wasn’t just the magic that made her miraculous. “Whether or not she is, she is the beginning of something new for us.” 

When Elsa was again settled down to sleep, Agnarr curved his body around Iduna. And when she woke in the night, breasts leaking milk and her body aching from the birth, he helped her dry off with the blanket they shared and hugged her tightly to warm her. He thought again of the fairy tales he had read as a child and recently with Iduna in their cave, and didn’t think he had ever read of a happier ending than this.

***

“King Agnarr!” Mattias entered the dwelling and bowed deeply. Agnarr rushed to him and they embraced. “You look awful!”

Agnarr pulled away and clapped his hands on Mattias’ shoulders. “Me? You don’t look so great either.”

Mattias rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s nothing. Got worse from you when you were a bratty child, kicking and screaming because the kitchens were out of chocolate.”

Agnarr laughed and and led Mattias to a place to sit. Lemek and his sons had hurriedly dug them an earthen house in the winter encampment; a peace offering. Agnarr accepted it warily, and Lemek accepted his presence warily. They reminded Iduna of two rock ptarmigans, circling each other and showing their combs. While Lemek was no longer openly hostile, he wasn’t openly joyous about Agnarr’s acceptance into the family.

“Congratulations on the birth!” He bowed towards Iduna “Lady Iduna, Princess Elsa. You can count on my protection.”

Iduna smiled at Mattias. “Thank you.” She looked at Agnarr and saw his nod. It was time. “We think there might be some challenges to keeping this child safe outside of the forest.”

Mattias tilted his head, waiting for her to explain. She said nothing, but pulled the ball Elsa had been gnawing on out of her hands and showed it to him. “She makes ice.”

Mattias looked at the icy ball, and then at the baby’s hands, even now growing tendrils of ice. He shook his head. “Earth Giants that move mountains, wind that answers to your call, water that flows and stops on command. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to see a baby with ice magic.”

Agnarr took Elsa from Iduna and cradled her in one arm against his chest. “Even with your watchful presence, I don’t think leaving this forest is a good idea for a magical child right now. People will be afraid, and you know better than most what happens when people fear magic. My father was wrong in his beliefs but not alone in them.”

“So you’ll stay here. With your family.” Mattias put a finger out for Elsa to grasp and watched as she curled her fingers around it, opening and closing them. 

“And you’ll go home to yours,” Agnarr said. “I have the power to create articles of succession to name a ruler in my stead.” Mattias turned his head to look at Agnarr, his mouth opening in surprise. “And you already have the unwavering support of most of the Arendelle Army.”

“Your Majesty - “

“No, not anymore. That’s you now. King Mattias of Arendelle. Long may you reign.” Agnarr bowed to him and Iduna curtsied.

Elsa grabbed his finger once more, coating it in ice, like a scepter, bright as a diamond. 

***

“Are you happy here?” Iduna asked quietly. The fires were out, Elsa was asleep and they lay under the furs and blankets, spent. The cool air of spring was turning into the warm air of summer and it had been months since King Mattias and some Arendellian soldiers returned south. 

Agnarr covered her body with his, his hands feeling this new shape of hers, one that gave birth and fed a hungry baby and everyday taught him how to love. “I thought I just showed you how happy I was to be here with you. Shall we go again?”

She put her hand on his chest and laughed. “No, that’s not what I mean. Are you happy living here when you could be king a bit further south? Are you happy here when you have given up so much?” She thought of his trying to learn the ways of her people, and how he still struggled to do tasks that most found simple. How he had attempted to prepare lutefisk, an Arendellian treat and tradition, but ended up just making the village reek of fish guts for three days. A man born a prince might grow weary of being a foreigner, of having to learn so much. 

He kissed her head and stroked her hair. “I’ve given up nothing. I gained a family who loves me, and that’s more than I ever had before. I don’t need to be king, I just need you to be my queen.”

He buried his face in her neck and kissed her until she believed him.

***

Elsa had already started to use her ice magic purposefully by the time Anna was born three years later. She would sit near the cook fire with Bruni, and they would take turns lighting the fire and putting it out. Iduna stopped hanging strips of cloth nearby, choosing other, more predictable fires to dry her bandages over instead.

Elsa would sit by the river and look for the Nokk just below the surface, stroking its mane with icy fingers that could reach below the surface and not get cold. Agnarr delighted in her love of the water horse and taught her all the terms for riding, hoping she one day would ride her equine companion. 

Horses were one of the few things he missed from his life in Arendelle And though a spirit water horse might be different from the Arabian that had been his, he liked to think that Nokk would be as good of a friend to Elsa as Solv had been to him.

When Anna could walk, she and Elsa climbed mountains by making ice stairs, and the Earth Giants liked to race them by building with boulders. Elsa liked to climb up as high as she could, and Anna liked to skate on the surface of the ice, joyous with the feel of continuous motion, the North Wind always rescuing her just before she teetered off the edge.

As the girls grew older, Bruni would follow them around, asking Elsa for a snowball to cool himself down by hopping on her shoulder. Nokk would now come out of the water when Elsa beckoned, and she and Anna were learning to ride, the North Wind pushing them back onto the animal’s back if they slid too far. 

Anna was born a month after Anja had died. Iduna named her for her friend and teacher, and hoped she could care for her people as well as Anja had. 

Anna did not control ice or fire and no earth or wind bent to her will. 

Her power was love. 

When injured reindeer were brought to Iduna for healing, Anna was called with an urgency just as great to stroke the beast’s muzzle, whisper in its ear, help if feel safe while its wound was stitched or its leg was set. 

When the Earth Giants tore up trees and threw boulders too close to the village, Anna would sing to quiet them or tell them a story holding them rapt and still with attention. She could even make them laugh with deep rumbles that churned the waters of the rivers, driving the fish upstream so the fisherman raced to empty their nets and cast them in again. 

And it was Anna who, at the age of four, sat with her mother as she translated in a meeting with Arendellian engineers and Northuldra fishermen, arguing about the best way to dismantle the dam that was strangling the Northuldra river. “You could ask the Giants to do it. They like moving stones.” And so they did with Anna as the lead expert in Earth Giants relations. Anna told the Earth Giants which stones to please move where, and thank you so much for stacking them so neatly, maybe now we can build a house out of them.

“A better diplomat than any ten times her age!” Agnarr exclaimed proudly to Elias, as they introduced their families to each other during the celebration of the newly freed river. Anna saw her father cry as he hugged his friend, and told him that night “He loves you just as much as you love him. I can tell.” Agnarr cried harder at her words, and she knew they were happy tears. She could tell. 

When new babies were born, Anna was the favorite to bring the shawl to the mother and babe. Her presence in the kota made tears turn to calm, her joy and charm bringing warmth and love back to the exhausted mother.

Anna asked Lemek if he wanted to make her happy and he said “Of course, my sweet.” She took his hand and said “Uncle Lemek, it hurts my heart that you don't love Papa like you love me." That night Lemek ate with them in their kota, seated between Anna and Agnarr, and the two men clasped hands at the end of the meal, much to her delight.

When the visits with Arendelle began, and King Mattias and Queen Halima brought her father books and her mother dresses so she could do something called a “waltz,” Anna was the one who led her Uncle Lemek by the hand and told him how much she wanted to meet the people who came from the same place as her father. She and Lemek watched the meeting, and as Anna spoke with Lady Wollen afterwards, admiring her dress and the fancy way she talked, Anna introduced her uncle by saying “This is my uncle. His wife died and he needs a new one. Will you be her?” 

And like a prophecy, Lady Wollen’s answering blush and Lemek’s surprised stammer turned into a friendship that culminated with Lemek moving to Arendelle, ostensibly for better relations between the two nations, but clearly in order to court the delighted Lady Wollen. 

Anna and Elsa played together often, usually with the children of the village, Ryder and Honeymaren especially. They made up games of tag, calling “No Fair!” when the North Wind intervened to push someone just out of reach of the chaser. They raced reindeer down the sides of mountains, the Earth Giants smoothing the way to keep the children from harming themselves or the herd. They made bets about who could ride Nokk the longest before getting too cold to continue and Elsa always won. When Elias and his family came for visits, Anna patiently and gently explained how to play with the spirits to his curious and cautious children. 

Bruni would light their fires for nighttime stories by the campfire, the children huddled around it and making each other scared while Agnarr and Iduna sat a few paces back, cuddled under one blanket and watching the stars.

Agnarr never wanted to go back to Arendelle to live, though he thought he might take the girls to visit. Perhaps when they were both of age, they could travel there together and he would show them the castle of his youth, the portraits of their ancestors, and the large, lonely rooms of his childhood. He laughed to think there were so many things they didn’t know about – scepters and crowns, doors and gates - and he laughed to think those things had once seemed important. But watching Anna and Elsa playing with friends, with each other, and with the spirits of the forest, and watching his wife as she smiled at him from her place in their bed, he knew he was already home. He thought of his family like a bridge, linking Northuldra and Arendelle. They made a place where the two nations could be linked through love instead of bound in pain. 

And he had found a way of helping his home, his adopted nation. He was teaching his native language and its written form to the Northuldra, and was devising a way for their language to be written instead of only spoken. It was a puzzle he enjoyed, and one Yelana agreed would benefit their nation. Though Iduna smiled to hear him speak her native tongue, loving the way the words sounded slightly garbled in his mouth, their daughters spoke both languages fluently.

Agnarr slowly created a library of sorts for Northuldra, eagerly accepting books from Mattias on each visit, and translating them into the Northuldra language. He read them aloud at night to his family, Iduna curled next to him with his hand on her knee, Anna in his lap with her hand above her head stroking his beard, and Elsa on Iduna’s lap, sometimes making the scenes and characters they were reading about out of ice. Agnarr had always loved stories but he thought he was living in the best one.

Children and adults who wanted to learn to read and write did so easily after lessons with Agnarr. He loved to tease Iduna about what it signified. 

"Admit it. Say I'm a better teacher than you! Look at all of my successful students, reading and writing. And me, still unable to walk quietly in the woods or tan a hide." He grinned at her, enjoying the look of amused exasperation on her face.

"You're a better teacher than you are a student, certainly. Or maybe Northuldra are smarter than Arendellians if you're so slow to learn and we are so quick."

We drew closer to her, putting his hands on her cheeks and leaning in for a kiss. Against her mouth, he whispered "Was I so slow at learning this?"

Before he covered his mouth with hers she smiled into him and said "No, but I'm a great teacher."

***

From high on the hill, Anna could see the new herd approach before she could see the people accompanying them.

“They’re here!” She scrambled down the incline, jumping off the ledge and thanking the North Wind for taking her safely the rest of the way. When she was younger she worried she might grow too heavy to travel in this way, but now at eighteen she was fully grown, and still able to fling herself off great heights and feel the rush of the North Wind rushing up to meet her.

Elsa saw the motion and said “Maybe don’t do your crazy trust exercises when they first arrive. I don’t think these people have a wind spirit in their woods; you don’t want to frighten them.”

“Aw, Elsa, that’s no fun! Besides, how exactly would you even hide your powers, at all? You’ll be shooting out ice and snow before you can remember not to!”

Elsa laughed. “Well, I might try to explain it first.”

“From astride your magical water horse? They’ll figure everything out very quickly, or run screaming. And since Ryder says we need to mix up our herd with theirs for a year of good breeding, let’s hope they don’t scare easily.”

Honeymaren joined them, talking hold of Elsa’s hand as they walked towards the visitors. 

Yelana was already stationed at the stones, her staff firm in her hand as she raised the other in greeting.

“Welcome to Northuldra. The People of the Sun invite you to enter the forest.”

A young man with light hair and heavy furs walked up to Yelana and extended his hand to shake hers. “Thank you, Yelana of Northuldra. I am Kristoff, and we are the people of the Black Mountain.”

Anna nudged Elsa. “Mine. He’s all mine.”


End file.
